Hubble Fixed, Freed; Scientists Await Its Reawakening

Astronauts released the newly repaired Hubble Space Telescope from the space shuttle Discovery on Saturday as scientists eagerly awaited its return to service.

“What a great Christmas present. It’s just what we wanted,” Mission Control radioed the astronauts as the Hubble drifted away.

Hubble project chief John Campbell said the telescope team would begin testing all its functions today. “We should be able to resume science in about two weeks,” Campbell said.

Preliminary tests showed Hubble’s new hardware was all working, and NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin sent congratulations to the crew Saturday morning.

“You guys did a tremendous job,” Goldin said. “You can’t imagine how anxious all the scientists were.”

The $3-billion observatory had been idle in its orbit since mid-November with four of its six navigational gyroscopes broken.

For five days the four-story device rode upright in the back of Discovery’s cargo bay as space-walking astronauts made repairs.

That overhaul was finished late Friday, and on Saturday French astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy used the shuttle’s robot arm to grasp the 12.5-ton Hubble and ease it out of Discovery’s bay.

Once the Hubble was free, commander Curt Brown fired the shuttle’s maneuvering jets and slowly backed away from the satellite.

It is rare for U.S. astronauts to spend Christmas in space but not unprecedented. The Apollo 8 crew orbited the moon over Christmas and sent a memorable reading from Genesis back to Earth in 1968.

Since reaching orbit in 1990, the Hubble has been the crown jewel of NASA’s orbiting observatories, bringing startling new insights into the age and size of the universe, among other things.

When the telescope appeared in February to be about to fail, NASA quickly assembled the crew and patched together a mission plan.

Discovery’s launch, first set for October, was delayed nine times by mishaps, breakdowns and bad weather. Mission managers worried they might lose the Hubble if the mission slipped into next year.

Discovery is scheduled to return to Earth on Monday.